Advance File PhotoSTOKES: Was shot and killed outside the building where he lived at 173 Brabant St. at about 4:30 a.m. Saturday

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Saturday morning shootout in Mariners Harbor that left a recent parolee dead and three others wounded stemmed from an ongoing feud between two rival groups from separate North Shore neighborhoods, investigators believe.

Police are still looking for the shooter or shooters who killed Justin Stokes, 21, outside the building where he lived at 173 Brabant St. at about 4:30 a.m. Saturday, though sources say they've narrowed down their suspect list.

According to one law enforcement source familiar with the investigation, the shooting involved two groups, one from West Brighton and New Brighton, the other from Mariners Harbor. Police are also looking into an earlier incident, at 1:40 a.m., where shots were reported fired at nearby Grandview Avenue, the source said.

The three survivors in the shootout include a 26-year-old who was listed in critical condition after being shot in the torso; a 24-year-old who sustained two gunshot wounds of the legs and was in stable condition; and a 30-year-old who was in stable condition after being shot in the buttocks.

Stokes, who spent two years in state prison after a 2009 conviction for attempted criminal possession of a weapon, was released to parole on April 10, less than a month before his death.

He found himself in trouble with the law just a week after his release, when he was a passenger in a car that led police on a wild chase across Staten Island's North Shore on April 17.

Police spotted Stokes and the car's driver, Darren Loyd, 23, in the middle of an apparent drug deal in West Brighton, and Loyd narrowly missed hitting a police detective as he drove off, according to court papers.

The car rammed a police vehicle driven by a second detective, backed up, and hit it again before speeding all the way to Mariners Harbor, police allege. Ultimately, Loyd hit a parked car, and the duo were arrested, according to court papers.

Stokes was arraigned on misdemeanor marijuana and ammunition possession charges the next day, and Stapleton Criminal Court Judge Alan J. Meyer ordered him released on his own recognizance.